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On March 22, 1963 the album Please, Please Me was released and a phenomenon was sparked. Now, 50 years later, The Beatles remain one of the most successful and recognizable groups on the planet. In this detail-filled book, musicologist Paul Charles looks at the years The Beatles were writing and recording music together. With an open, and certainly opinionated eye, he explores their music, their cronies, and their stories. This is rock `n' roll chronology at its best, from an author who knows a thing or two about the music business. "To share a fan's passion for the music... Single by single, album by album, Charles gushes."-Kirkus Reviews "Very strongly recommended reading for their legions of fans."--The Midwest Book Review, August 2013

Derrybeg and Back offers us a splendid poetic journey from the riven shores of County Donegal to the grit of inner-city America. Along the way we visit churches, airports, schools, half-way houses and more, which John McNamee depicts with a keen eye for local detail. But the many vividly illustrated places to which McNamee takes us evoke another voyage, the journey inward. With a strong sense of justice McNamee negotiates matters of faith, loneliness, longing, and love. McNamee addresses these concerns, experienced by all, with exceptional poignancy, in a delightfully organized collection of poems.

Enslaved by their own fears, the characters in this riveting collection are straining for redemption. Their choices reflect the well-worn patterns we carve for ourselves through our idiosyncrasies-our dominant traits. A basketball coach teaches moral ambiguity; a divorcee clutches at sanity; a mother struggles with her son's paternity; a childless man regrets his youthful onanism. Through their shared experiences these tangible characters undergo the sad, hilarious search for wholeness and security. Set in the stark isolated landscape of Southern Alberta, Eric Freeze's debut collection is a deftly-crafted study of desperate mortals careening through their liminal moments, grasping for certainty. "An honest record, a way to trace the passage of time and understand the little stories of our past"--Boston Review "Freeze Builds his sentences with the intricate grace of the snowflakes so often falling from the sky in these stories, all of them peculiarly sad and funny and beautiful."--Ben Percy "The fiction in Dominant Traits seems grounded in the quirkiness that is the everyday, that is where we learn about the human heart and its odd acts of defiance, generosity, courage, ineptitude."--Darrell Spencer "Excellent stories... Freeze produces realistic, believable people and delves deeply into their psyches to create truly enjoyable character studies."-Booklist

A woman recalls the freedom and power of childhood games; a surprise anniversary party goes awry when the husband is hospitalized and the fault lines and strengths of a family are laid bare; a teacher rediscovers her calling amidst unthinkable tragedy; a lonely woman recognizes her responsibility to her sister's troubled life-in this collection of stories the prose and passion of life are brought together in ways that show both the complexity and the simplicity of living. Told against a Midwest background, they focus mainly on women's experiences, yet nonetheless reflect universal conditions. This is what makes Karen Gettert Shoemaker's style so affecting and her stories so appealing. These stories show the importance of knowing the preciousness of this life, whatever form it takes. These are simple stories, told with a grace and elegance that belies their joyful art and craft. "Crafted with care and grace. This book establishes Shoemaker as a talented chronicler of rural life and domestic gestures, with an eye for what's funny in grief, and what's sad in humor."-Publishers Weekly "Short stories at their finest can be the ultimate in fiction: compressed gems that in a few words can create memorable people and emotions out of thin air. Shoemaker's first collection contains such, and readers will laugh and cry at her spare portrayals of loss and friendship... . This is a powerful and valuable collection."-Library Journal

A collection of poems by an inner-city priest reflecting time spent in Ireland.

In the tenth book of the acclaimed DI Christy Kennedy series, a successful investment banker is found dead under unusual circumstances. While it looks like the case of an autoerotic escapade gone wrong, Kennedy has other suspicions. After working through a battery of interviews, and uncovering a potential political scandal, Kennedy follows the trail to California. There he is intrigued by an attractive police officer investigating her husband's murder. But the redoubtable DI still finds time to get his man. "A bit of luck and an astonishing clue lead Kennedy to San Francisco, where a door opens into an entirely new mystery with engrossing twists of its own. Haunted by a broken romance, bewildered by a new one, the reserved and courtly Kennedy proves irresistible to women, much to his (and the reader's) delight."--Publishers Weekly. "The tenth Christy Kennedy mystery finds the Camden Town detective inspector following the clues to a man's death all the way to California."--Booklist. "An intriguing mystery."--Half Moon Bay Review. "One murder leads to another and DI Kennedy goes trans-Atlantic in his 10th appearance... Charles serves up his usual pleasant concoction at his usual leisurely pace."--Kirkus Reviews. "The characters are handled well, and Charles adds enough flavor to the dialogue to distinguish everyone from each other."--Mystery Scene Magazine.

Adjusting to the sweltering heat of the Mississippi Delta is the least of Teri's troubles. Dragged there by her mother's ill-advised search for career development, she must now drudge her way through a new school, the constant tension between her parents, and the duplicitous nature of teenagers and adults alike. But then she meets a strange boy at school, Nother Martin, and as their relationship develops she is drawn into a world of moonshine and roadhouses, fortune tellers and grizzled Blues legends. In contrast to her own tangled relationships, she finds comfort in Nother's strong family bonds and his roots in the depthless South. As Teri learns about bad behavior and untimely death, she discovers a better, wiser version of herself. "The mind of a smart teen girl is a universe that has attracted many writers, and David Racine's Teri is one of the best. A tightly woven and gorgeously written report from inside a unique person, by a writer who knows the world and doesn't allow it to lie."--Andrei Codrescu "A complex story line, well-developed characters, evocative descriptions, and quirky humor create an inviting read."-Library Journal "There is much to admire in Racine's treatment of character and setting."-Booklist "Racine's beautiful prose deftly handles these alternate narratives... [Teri's] perceptive voice adds depth and pathos to this modern-day bildungsroman."-Publishers Weekly

In the stormy seas of Galway Bay, Jim Predergast and his treasured yacht Larinita are doing their best to compete in a local race. After a boating accident that kills his wife and daughter, Jim embarks on a personal quest for revenge which leads him on a dark journey involving IRA gun-running and an international terrorist plot of major proportions aimed at destroying the peace talks once and for all. Foote's highly literate and tightly plotted debut novel heralds a new and exciting voice in thriller/suspense fiction.

For the first time in his life, Robert Ryder doesn't have orders. He has just buried his son Mark; his career in the French Foreign Legion is finished. Unable to settle into civilian life, he drifts to Thailand, where he learns of a man on death row for dealing with the same drug lords responsible for Mark's deadly overdose. However, the smugglers find Ryder before he can find them. Kidnapped to Burma, Ryder escapes and realizes his mission. Facing the reality of a growing drug culture and the greed that fuels it, Ryder aims to make peace with his past by exacting retribution in the best way he knows. With the vengeance of a father wronged and the precise brutality of a Foreign Legionnaire, Ryder infiltrates the organization. But the deeper he goes, the more familiar the faces become. "Walk With The Devil is a scintillating fuel pumped thriller. A true in your face juggernaut of adrenaline, plotting and pace. Both a fascinating insider's view of The Legion, and a deeply moving compassionate examination of loss. This is thriller writing of the highest order and Tom Foote is the new name to reach for. Foote rules on just every level there is!"--Ken Bruen "Walk With the Devil is Tom Foote at the peak of his Powers! Read it!"-Stuart Woods "An old-fashioned, no-holds-barred revenge story."-Publishers Weekly "A meticulously detailed and very exciting story of revenge. Think of Ryder as having the wrath of an Old Testament prophet and skills of a professional killer."--Irish AmNew

H.L. Mencken, in his illustrious career as a journalist, made his reputation with satirical writing and controversial ideals. Although his is a name not customarily associated with short fiction, it was his first literary love. From 1900 to 1919, he published nearly 60 stories and short-shorts, sometimes pseudonymously. Here for the first time, 30 of Mencken's thoroughly entertaining stories are collected, showcasing Mencken's wit and skill in a medium for which he is not well known. Meet a bumbling anarchist newspaper editor; the `Charmed Circle' of Long Island in a story strikingly prescient of F. Scott Fitzgerald; a shop owner whose mannequins belie a horrific secret; and a pair of wily entrepreneurs working in the Caribbean, among plenty of other excellent, amusing, and memorable stories. "Superb, clever, or hilarious use of language... Read "Epithalamium," a sendup of the social rigmarole of marriage for its exquisite choice of words, or the Poe-esque "The Window of Horrors," about a clothier and his obsession with life-like mannequins, for its chills. For quintessential Mencken, read "The Man of God," whose lowly grocer becomes an evangelist."-Publishers Weekly

In this new series from Paul Charles, formerly retired policeman Brendy McCusker is forced to return to work following his wife's flight to America with their nest-egg. On his first major case in Belfast he partners with DI Lily O'Carroll to locate the two missing sons of a wealthy businessman. But before that case is resolved, an American banker working in Belfast is brutally murdered down on leafy Cyprus Avenue and McCusker and O'Carroll are put on the case. While the list of suspects grows ever longer, McCusker find himself juggling his move to Belfast, O'Carroll's frequent blind dates, his status as a hired-back rent-a-cop, and being a single man while trying hard not to have his head turned by Belfast's beautiful women - one mysterious one in particular. There is no relief when McCusker and O'Carroll eventually find a suspect with an air-tight alibi , which only one of the detectives believes is genuine... "Continuously absorbing, with a nice rapport between the hero and heroine."--Kirkus Reviews "Introducing a new lead character and a new setting gives the book a real sense of freshness. Readers will definitely want to see more of Brendy McCusker."--Booklist "Charles launches his new Brendy McCusker series with this twist-filled tale of betrayal and revenge."--Publishers Weekly "Charles has created an endearing character in his new novel."--NY Journal of Books

William Black's debut short story collection looks closely at lives lived in the heart of coal country-now fracking country-in Northeastern Pennsylvania. Two miners battered by a cave-in try to wrestle down the river that altered the course of their lives. A suicide pact leaves a family and its town bewildered and struggling for words. A fracking crew confronts the vast mysteriousness of things hidden in the depths of the earth and the lives that take place on its surface.In these starkly beautiful, incandescent stories, characters struggle with the grip that their locale and its past have on them, and they are consumed by searching-for love, for escape, for brief moments of clarity that give them the courage to continue.William Black's stories have appeared in The Sun, The Southern Review, Threepenny Review, Crazyhorse, Prairie Schooner, the Florida Review, and many other journals and magazines. He lives in Scranton, Pennsylvania and teaches at Johns Hopkins University. "Black is at his best as a social realist in a blue-collar milieu."--Kirkus Reviews Feb. 15, 2014

A lone building on a small island off Ireland's Donegal coast, St Ernan's is politely known as a "retirement home" for priests. The exiled residents are guilty of such serious offenses as entrepreneurship, criticizing the church, or getting too friendly with the flock. But things take a turn when Fr Matthew McKaye is found dead in the kitchen, a pot of potatoes boiling on the range. Has one of these isolated outcasts committed murder? Starrett soon discovers that ten clergy alone on an island can concoct a great deal of mischief, but what could the young priest have done to get himself murdered? Long-buried grievances are awakened by the ghosts of Starrett's seminarian past, and though Starrett excels at untangling facts from speculation, this investigation is going to require all the procedural discipline he can muster. "Charles makes Starrett's third case leisurely, literate, ingenious. . . and as old-fashioned as the idea that priests are pillars of private morality."-Kirkus Reviews. "In Irish author Charles's atmospheric third Inspector Starrett mystery, Starrett investigates a murder at a home for wayward Catholic priests. They soon find that there are plenty of secrets the inhabitants and surrounding townsfolk would like to keep well buried."--Publisher's Weekly "The reader of St Ernan's Blues will learn a lot about the priests at St Ernan's and a lot about human nature."--Irish American News

Of immense value to anyone interested in the Irish story in America.--The Boston Globe. This collection of three generations of Irish immigrant fiction excerpted from novels, magazines, and newspapers provides new insight into the nineteenth-century immigrant experience. It captures the spirit of those who were experiencing the traumas of adjustment and assimilation. The men and women authors of these pieces vividly render the details of immigrant life in a variety of settings, from Virginia and Nebraska to San Francisco, Chicago, New York City, Philadelphia, and Boston, from 1820 to 1906. Fanning places each selection in its historical and cultural context by means of introductory notes. Together, they provide the most extended, continuous body of literature available to us by members of a single American ethnic group. This new edition provides some additional selections as well as new background material. Charles Fanning is Professor of English at Southern Illinois University, CarbondaleEPUB3: Reflowable

In sometimes humorous and sometimes tragic, even violent contexts, the characters in these stories struggle to fathom the complexities and circumstances of their lives. Here are ordinary people trying to come to grips with the implications of where they've been, and preparing themselves for where they're headed. All these stories seek to interrogate and render in genuine and unflinching ways the nature of doubt, delusion, and surprisingly, the potentially rescuing powers of faith and grace. They are above all, honest and compassionate stories. Here is a writer you can trust; here are people you have known. (Behold Faith)

The stories in this new collection from Tom Noyes show us everyday characters weighing the evidence of their circumstances and seeking ways to understand more fully the mysteries that define their lives. The beauty of each story comes from the reckless hope of these characters, their sometimes blind faith in the possibilities of human connection. "Stories that follow truly human characters as they deal with the common problems of life, such as the death of a father and the relationship with his son, a boy struggling with illiteracy, the suicide of a loved one- all things that everyday people may deal with, but all written intriguingly to glue readers to the page. 'Spooky Action at a Distance' is deftly written and highly recommended."--Midwest Book Review "Humor, surprise, and eminently engaging narrators." NewPages.com "His command of craft allows him to unfold characters in a way that moves past mere cleverness and down into emotional tectonics of faith, affection, loyalty, and grief." Image Magazine